Guerra Quotes

My parents and grandparents listened to bacheta heavy, the true bachata from back in the day - Juan Luis Guerra, Anthony Santos. I liked the genre, but I remember thinking, 'OK, enough of this.' I would sing Usher's 'U Remind Me' to the girls in school. ~ Prince Royce

I have a dream of getting a visa, which is a dream that many people have so they can leave their countries to come someplace else, specifically they want to come to the United States. ~ Juan Luis Guerra

Antonio Bolivar Salvador has an incredible story because he's one of the last Ocaina people left. The Ocaina people are - and the Ocaina language is basically about to disappear in this generation. You know, there are very few people that speak it. And he's one of them. ~ Ciro Guerra

It's the anonymity of the war that makes the killing possible. When the nameless dead are named again on tombstone and on cenotaph, then they regain the identity they lost as soldiers, and take their place in grief and memory, the ghosts of sons and lovers. ~ Diana Gabaldon

The loss of the culture is one of the main reasons Ciro Guerra wanted to tell their story. ~ Tom Cole

One can make war to everything - but not to Peace.

Puoi far la guerra a tutto - ma non alla Pace. ~ Adriano Bulla

Like a moth, Rene was attracted to the flame of fame ~ James D. Bradley

It's an incredible honor to be recognized by St. Jude, especially on a special year like its 50th anniversary. I feel passionate about my music, but even more passionate about children and giving them the opportunity to live a healthy and happy life. ~ Juan Luis Guerra

The problem now is that young people, young indigenous people, are not so interested in preserving traditional knowledge. So for them, seeing that it was important for us and for the outside world, this traditional knowledge, it was a big deal to them. ~ Ciro Guerra

This is what the war has done to me. Now I want to destroy because of it. There is such hate and rage inside me now. The Angkar has taught me to hate so deeply that I now know I have the power to destroy and kill. ~ Loung Ung

I've always felt we're supposed to be sad as often as we're happy. Without being forlorn, happiness has no value. I believe out there, whatever or whoever is responsible for the universe has simply made us start at the beginning before more is revealed to us. I don't believe in a perfect existence. If it were around, we would know about it already. Erase pain and suffering and erase life. We're being prepared for the next chapter. Being subjected to what's considered the ultimate state of mind in the universe comes with a price-tag. What steps were at now I have no idea. But I'm excited to get to the end someday. Maybe I'll come find you and we can swap stories sometime? Until then I value my sadness as much as my happiness. A sadness we all share. ~ Evan Guerra

May God fill this beautiful land of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador with his peace and love. ~ Juan Luis Guerra

What Do Women Want?"

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in. ~ Kim Addonizio

In fact, Guerra based his story on the diaries of two explorers, German Theodor Koch-Grunberg and American Richard Evans Schultes. There work is some of the only documentation of cultures that have since vanished. But Guerra did not want white men to be his protagonists. ~ Tom Cole

I'm not afraid of death really, just what comes after. ~ Jose Guerra Sison

That is how we always keep our beloved dead alive, isn't it? By telling stories about them; true stories. ~ James D. Bradley

Losing all the preconceptions that I had about storytelling, about the world, you know, and learning to see the world from a different perspective. It sounds romantic, but it's not an easy process at all. ~ Ciro Guerra

We have a pride of who we are as Latinos, regardless if we're Puerto Rican, Dominican, Venezuelan, and we're very proud of our customs and our history and our traditions and who we are. ~ Juan Luis Guerra

Re-create our legacy, m'ija. Re-do what needs to be re-done so we can die in the appreciation of who we are, the histories we were unable to honor and know about while we lived. We did not have the luxury of intellectual distance. Our poverty, our brutality, seeped into our pores. We did not learn about it from books, or from other people's stories. The third world was our only world. Go, m'ija. ~ Susan M. Guerra

Late in his life, Rene complained of living a life of a celebrity one minute and a "John Doe" the next. ~ James D. Bradley